Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC Lowers Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,815 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 19 shares during the quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $19,949,512,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after buying an additional 424,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,211,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,892,509 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total transaction of $535,542.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 584,823 shares of company stock valued at $386,274,777 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $576.74 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $655.23 and its 200 day moving average is $609.21. The company has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.